


evil author day 2021

by pillar_of_salt



Category: Madam Secretary
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:47:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29432655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pillar_of_salt/pseuds/pillar_of_salt
Summary: garbage can, meet dumpster fire.
Comments: 66
Kudos: 7





	1. quid pro quo (outtake)

Nadine followed the Secretary into her office through the side door of the conference room. She closed the door behind them quietly.

“How was your dinner with Harding?” Elizabeth asked as she walked over to the coffee cart and poured herself a second cup.

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Nadine said. She felt, very suddenly, quite nervous. She sat down in the chair facing the Secretary’s desk, body turned to face Elizabeth as she spoke. “It didn’t go… quite as well as I would have liked. You might have to do some damage control today, and I apologize for that.”

Elizabeth paused. “That bad, huh?”

“It veered in a direction I hadn’t planned,” Nadine said glumly, “and now I don’t know how amenable he will be regarding the deal.”

“What happened?” 

“He got a little rough with me.”

That made Elizabeth freeze completely. Then she abandoned her drink on the cart and walked toward Nadine. “He got rough with you,” she repeated slowly. “Are you… are you all right?”

Nadine pushed up her sleeve to show Elizabeth the bruise, and the other woman inhaled sharply. “He grabbed me, but... I stopped him before he could go too far.” 

“Nadine,” she said, “ _that_ is too far.”


	2. eleventh hour (outtake)

“I had a miscarriage, Henry!” she whispers furiously. 

That stuns him silent. He feels it like a blow to the gut. 

“I had a miscarriage, and you weren’t... you weren’t there, I was alone, I had no one...”

“Why... why didn’t you ever tell me?” he says hoarsely. He leans back against the door heavily. “You never said anything.”

“I didn’t know how. And- and you came back and you were so different. I felt like I didn’t even know how to talk to you anymore!”

“Baby...”


	3. Chapter 3

It physically pains her to see her friend like this. Hopeless. Her Chief of Staff had him by the balls and didn’t even know it.

“You don’t have to be so _obvious_ about it, you know.”

“About what?”

“Don’t bullshit me.”

Mike just shrugs. “If _you_ slept with her, you might have more sympathy for me.”

“So that’s all it’s about? The sex?”

He rolls his eyes. “Of course not; I actually _like_ her.” 

That makes Elizabeth scoff. Admire her, fear her, respect her, yes. But _like_ her? “No one _likes_ Nadine.”

“You do.”

“I don’t count.”

“Maybe people just don’t really know her,” he offers reasonably.

“And you do?”

He shrugs. “I mean I bagged her; that’s got to count for something, right?”

“Maybe less than you think,” Elizabeth says thoughtfully. And then shoots him a hard glare. “And I don’t appreciate you objectifying my Chief of Staff.”

He holds up both hands. “I respect her deeply. You know that.”

"Whatever."


	4. Chapter 4

“Our policy in the Middle East,” she begins, prepared to launch the company line. She is nothing if not loyal.

“Doesn’t work,” he interrupts. “And you of all people should know that. You’ve seen it.”

“ _Then we rewrite the policy_. We don’t betray our country.”

“I’m not betraying my country. I’m serving it.”

“ _I_ am serving it. _You_ are giving up on it.”

“I am _saving_ it. Maybe you don’t see it yet—”

“What you’re suggesting is treason.”

“I am a patriot, Elizabeth. And sometimes the hard thing is the necessary thing.”

“I know Conrad didn’t sign off on this,” she says. 

He avoids her unspoken question. “Elizabeth, I read you in because I thought that after the shit you’ve seen, you’d realize that this is necessary. But I don’t _need_ you in order to get the ball rolling, you understand.”

“Conrad doesn’t know, does he?”

He stares at her. “If you get in our way, I can’t protect you from the consequences.” The steel in his eyes alarms her. He continues, “And I won’t be able to protect your family, either.”

Her blood runs cold. “Is that a threat?” she says quietly.

“It doesn’t have to be one.”

“That’s not an acceptable answer.”

“Yours wasn’t, either.”

“Andrew,” she says, and now her voice is deadly sharp. “I want to make something very clear to you, alright? If you ever come after my family, Conrad will have to pull your body out of the Potomac River. Do we understand each other?” And she means it. By God, does she mean it. 

He can sense that, too. He levels her with a hard, impassive glare.

Elizabeth gets up to leave. She’s shaken by what she’s learned, and needs time alone to regroup, to consider what this all means. At the door, she turns back to look at him. “I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing here,” she says, “but you need to shut it down right now. And you need to leave me out of it.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Henry?”

He can tell from the tone of her voice that something is very wrong. “Babe?”

There’s a funny lilt to her voice. “Stevie isn’t answering. I’ve texted her five times, called her twice…”

“She must be busy.”

“She always calls back. Henry, it’s been five hours…”

“Did you call Russell?”

“He said she clocked out for lunch and he hasn’t seen her since.”

“Lunch? It’s four o’clock now—”

“I _know_ ,” Elizabeth says, sounding anxious. “Henry…”

“Maybe she’s just busy. Look babe, I’m sure she’s fine. Maybe she took the afternoon off.”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth says half-heartedly. “I just have a bad feeling.”

/

“The United States does not negotiate with terrorists.” Stevie gets smacked across the face. 

Elizabeth flinches. Beside her, she can feel Henry tense up. His grip on her shoulder tightens, trying to ground them both amidst the terror they’re both feeling. She knows that the rage and fury is coiling up inside him, white hot and wrapped in fear - because it is bubbling up inside her too. 

Slowly, Stevie lifts her head. Though the video is grainy, Henry and Elizabeth can see the trickle of blood from a split lip, and a steely defiance in her eyes. Their baby, trying to be brave. “Oh god, Henry,” Elizabeth whispers. Her entire body is shaking and she wants to throw up, but forces the feeling down. It wouldn’t help Stevie. 

“I know you know, you stubborn bitch. Answer me.” 

“The United States,” Stevie whispers, breathing harder now, “does not negotiate with terrorists.”


	6. Chapter 6

She is very small, but the way she carries herself makes her seem like more imposing of a person. Behavior that comes with years of practice, probably. 

He’d looked her up briefly, but it wasn’t enough to get a feel for what he might be up against. He knows her by reputation, of course, but he likes to make his own judgments before placing stock in the gossip pool. 

She looks to be about his age. He knows she has just as many years of public service under her belt. He knows that before this, she most recently served as Chief of Staff to McCord at State. He’d heard that she’d resigned abruptly and moved away for a stint in academia, though clearly this did not keep her. 

Though he has liaised with Stare plenty of times in the past, he’d never had the opportunity to work with her. Often, he worked directly with the bureau heads; once, Jay Whitman.

He can see now that her reputation exists for a reason.


	7. Chapter 7

She’s skeptical of their new soon-to-be boss and that is putting it lightly. 

Nadine eats weak-willed politicians for breakfast, and Elizabeth McCord isn’t even a politician. How the woman will helm an entire federal agency, Nadine hasn’t the faintest clue. 

She even storms into Russell’s office over it and if Russell is surprised to see her, he doesn’t show it. She never storms anywhere, so he has to know that she’s livid. 

“It’s out of my hands, Nadine,” he says immediately, foregoing any preamble. “You’ll just have to make it work.”

“ _I_ have to make it—”

“You’ll manage,” he adds. 

“I’m not the one I’m worried about,” she mutters. But she does tuck tail and leave. Nadine knows when she can squeeze Russell Jackson for more, which is why she knows this isn’t one of those times. 

Blood out of a stone, and all. 


	8. Chapter 8

“She’s a woman,” Nadine says, “and so am I. In DC, I don’t need a second reason.”

“Your _boss_ is a woman too,” he snaps back. “Women aren’t hurting for status anymore, Nadine. Look at her, look at you. Sexism no longer comes into it.”

Nadine narrows her eyes. “My boss,” she says, “was the subject of a puff piece last Tuesday which analyzed the presentation of her legs in pencil skirts. So do not presume to tell me when gender does and does not matter in this town.”

“You would seriously waste your capital on this?” he demands, like she’s grown three heads.

“To protect a woman from _your_ boss?” Her voice goes deadly soft. “I would waste my _career_ on it if need be. Now get the hell out of my office.”


	9. birthday gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a mess of a snippet.

Mike’s birthday: he comes to the office for a quick meeting in the afternoon and after, Elizabeth has a small celebration for him in the office at the end of the day - just the main staff. There’s cake and champagne. As everyone’s clearing out at the end, she holds Mike and Nadine for a second so she can give Mike her gift. 

She gives Mike an affectionate hug, a “Happy birthday,” and hands the present to Nadine. Nadine tries to pass it to Mike, but Elizabeth takes it, “Nope,” and hands it back to Nadine again.

“Ma’am?” She’s confused.

Elizabeth is smirking just a little. “Open it when you get home,” she advises.

/

As they leave the office, they confirm dinner plans. Her treat. His favorite restaurant. 

In her own home, Nadine opens Elizabeth’s gift. To Mike. A La Perla box. What the hell? She lifts the lid. Corset. Garters. Stockings. Underwear. A gorgeous, deep green silk. Black lace. And all in her size. The Secretary, Nadine decides, has lost her mind.

But she gets ready and puts it on under her dress; the whole ensemble fits like a glove, and Nadine is a little weirded out, but can admit that it looks good. 

Mike picks her up. 

They go to dinner. He asks her about Elizabeth’s gift. Nadine, nonchalant - she has to commit - says, “Oh, you can unwrap it later.”

/

She goes home with him. He undresses her. He nearly loses his mind. Some disbelief about, “Jesus Christ. _Bess_ did this?!” 

Mike takes his sweet time. Nadine gets impatient, but he presses her back against the mattress, not having it. “This is _my_ present. Don’t rush me.”

/

Nadine comes into work the next day limping. Hard to walk, harder to sit down. She greets Elizabeth at the elevator when she gets in. She tries to hide it, but she’s walking gingerly and Elizabeth obviously notices it right away. She’s unreasonably pleased with herself. “Mike had a good birthday, then?”

“You could say that,” Nadine says weakly.

“And you had a good time too, I hope.”

“You could say that,” she repeats. She blushes a little. She’s still weirded out. 

But Elizabeth is just cheeky. And grinning like a madwoman. “That bastard owes me big time.”


	10. Chapter 10

“They never bothered to revoke my access when I died,” is the first thing Vincent Marsh says when, inexplicably, he appears on the seventh floor. In the flesh; wholly alive. 

Elizabeth is uncertain, confused, and immediately suspicious. 

Munsey had engineered the accident in a blatant assassination attempt—or so Marsh says. He'd faked his death and now he fully intends to turn the man in for treason. 

It was necessary, he insists, if regrettably dramatic. He insists he had nothing to do with Tamerlane. When they investigate further, the evidence backs him up. If it isn’t true, well then Marsh has simply covered his tracks far too well for them to unravel the lie anyway. 

And now he’s going to do his best to oust Elizabeth from his seat.

And despite all the ground they’d gained in friendship, in enduring hardship, Nadine abandons Elizabeth to be by his side once again. It breaks Elizabeth’s heart, a little. But Nadine doesn’t even look back.

This disappoints Daisy, too. She looks up to Nadine, and disapproves of the alignment of the other woman’s loyalties. 

But Nadine will always take him back, no matter what. No matter how.

“One day, you are going to find something or someone for whom you’d do… _anything_ ,” she tells Daisy softly. “I have to follow my heart on this. Someday you’ll understand that."

“I don’t think I will.”

“Someday you’ll _do_ that.”

“No,” Daisy says resolutely. “That isn’t me.”

"It‘s all of us. You’ll see.”

“He’s ruined you, Nadine. One day, _you’ll_ see that.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rated M.

She’d seen him hanging around the office all morning, had tried her hardest not to pay attention to him. It had ended up being a lot more challenging than she’d anticipated, and she wasn’t nearly as successful as she wanted to be. It hadn’t helped that all she could think about all day was dragging him into the supply closet and having her way with him.

So by the time she leaves the office at five (by some small miracle), she’s practically climbing the walls. By the time she gets to his house, she’s ready to jump Mike’s bones right there in the foyer, if he’ll let her. And Mike, it turns out, is more than happy to oblige.

Nadine clenches on a fistful of sheets now, exhaling shakily into the mattress. 

“Easy does it,” he murmurs. Mike braces his palm on her lower back as he eases a third finger into her cunt. “C’mon, I know you can take it.”

Blindly, she presses one palm against the headboard and lifts her ass higher into the air, pushing back against his hand. 

“Were you thinking about this all day, too?” he murmurs. He sinks his fingers into her again, turning his wrist until she moans. “God knows I was. Could hardly focus on anything else. Too busy thinking about all the ways I wanted to take you apart tonight.”


	12. Chapter 12

Someone walks up next to her. Elizabeth doesn’t turn to look, just stares out at the lake. 

“It’s so beautiful out here, isn’t it?” It’s Rochana. 

“It is,” Elizabeth says neutrally, and they fall into a small silence. 

She has nothing against Rochana. Elizabeth doesn’t particularly relish her company, but she has no reason to dislike the woman. Rochana and Henry still remain good friends, despite breaking up over a year ago. Elizabeth, who has never ever felt the inclination to remain friends with her exes, finds this inexplicable. 

Rochana clears her throat and speaks up again. “Can I say something? You have to promise not to hit me.”

Elizabeth turns to her then, startled. “What?”

“You have to promise,” Rochana repeats patiently, “not to hit me.”

“...All right.”

“If you’re going to just keep toying with Henry, you should just leave him alone.” 

Rochana’s boldness surprises her. Elizabeth turns to face her fully. “I’m not—”

“He’ll wait around for you forever if you let him. It would be mean to let him.”


End file.
